Celebrities and politicians usually don”t like to go public with such personal skeletons as doing jail time.

But not Quentin Tarantino. In fact, the director took time out of promoting his new movie, “The Hateful Eight,” to vehemently deny a tabloid report that he fabricated stories about serving time in jail to boost his “tough guy” credibility, The Guardian reported.

“I was in jail three different times, the last time was for eight days,” Tarantino told an interviewer. “Three days one time, two days another time and eight days last time.”

Tarantino, known for such literate, crime-and-violence-packed films as “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained,” was responding to a November 29 report in the New York Post.

The Post accused the Academy Award-winning filmmaker of erroneously claiming in interviews over the past 23 years that he served time in a Los Angeles county jail for unpaid traffic warrants.

The newspaper said that Tarantino”s only recorded brush with the law was a payment in 2000 of $871 for violation of driving without a licence.

The Academy Award-winning director, 52, accused the Post”s reporters of failing to do their job in reporting on his purported jail stints.

“They”re just really bad journalists,” he said. “It would be so easy for them to look (his jail record) up but they”re not actually doing the work that it takes to look it up.”

The Post has been going on a public shaming campaign against Tarantino, following his controversial statements on police brutality at a New York rally on Oct. 24.

Specifically, the paper has backed police organizations around the country, including the San Jose Police Department, in their calls for a boycott of “The Hateful Eight,” which hits theaters on Christmas Day.

A Western, “The Hateful Eight” is set in 19th century Wyoming, and stars Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kurt Russell.

So far that boycott doesn”t look to be panning out. There was no expected protest at the film”s premiere Monday night at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Variety reported that the only police presence was provided by four off-duty LAPD officers in uniform.

Tarantino told The Guardian he hopes to return to speaking out against police brutality after “The Hateful Eight” gets launched. “When this is over, I want to go further with this,” he said.